Each week on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” five
surgical interns grapple with the pressures of life inside the fictional
Grace Hospital in Seattle. In March, CNN brought the concept
closer to home by airing a drama based on the real day-to-day lives
of residents at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
“Grady’s Anatomy”
shadowed three Emory residents and one Morehouse resident in the
trauma unit, in the operating room, on hospital rounds, and at home.
It followed CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta as he supervised
residents in neurosurgery. And it explored new guidelines that limit
residents to 30-hour shifts and no more than 80 hours a week.
The show’s stars were internal
medicine intern Andrea Meinerz, Morehouse general
surgery intern Nii Darko, ER intern Robin
Lowman, and fifth-year neurosurgery resident Luis
Tumialan. The residents’ real lives trumped the drama
of their fictional counterparts. Meinerz, whose parents never attended
college and whose father is a factory worker, plans to specialize
in neurology. She enjoys bird watching, and she plays a mean hand
of poker.
Darko, whose parents immigrated from
Ghana, attended prep school in New York City. With no doctors in
his family, he drew inspiration from Bill Cosby’s portrayal
of Dr. Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.”
Lowman, a self-proclaimed daddy’s
girl from South Carolina, grew up following her father on his hospital
rounds. She once considered leaving medicine for Broadway, having
lived in New York, recorded her own music, and performed in an off-Broadway
show. However, her roots drew her back to medicine and the ER.
Tumialan, a former Navy diver with
a newborn, is honing his skills in the operating room. He particularly
enjoys performing cranioplasties, and in his off hours, pumping
iron.
What was it like to be the focus of
so much attention during filming for these four young doctors? For
more on their experiences in front of the camera, see Behind
the scenes of Grady's Anatomy